Karim Khan Zand

Nader Shah was later murdered in 1747 at the hands of his own men, which gave the Zands under Karim Khan the opportunity to return to their former lands in western Iran. In 1748/49, Karim Khan allied with the military leader Zakariya Khan, and clashed with the Bakhtiari chieftain Ali Mardan Khan Bakhtiari, whom they initially defeated, but were shortly suffered a loss and were forced to withdraw from the strategic town of Golpayegan, which Ali Mardan seized.

In the spring of 1750, Ali Mardan attempted to capture the former Safavid capital of Isfahan, but was defeated at Murcheh Khvort, a town near the city. He then started to dispatch messengers at Golpayegan to his regional opponents, which included Karim Khan and Zakariya Khan, who accepted his offer of terms, and combined their forces with the latter, which made the number of their men strengthen to 20,000.[8]

An illustration of Isfahan from the south.

In May 1750, they stormed the gates of Isfahan—its governor Abu'l-Fath Khan Bakhtiari and other prominent residents assembled to protect the fortress of the city, but agreed to surrender and collaborate with them after Ali Mardan's reasonable proposals.[8] Abu'l-Fath, together with Ali Mardan and Karim Khan, formed an alliance in western Iran under the cover of restoring the Safavid dynasty, appointing a 17 year old Safavid prince, Abu Turab, as a puppet ruler—on June 29, Abu Turab was declared shah, and assumed the dynastic name of Ismail III.[8]

Ali Mardan then took the title of Vakil-e daulat ("deputy of the state")[9] as the head of the administration, while Abu'l-Fath maintained his post as governor of Isfahan, and Karim Khan was appointed commander (sardar) of the army, and was given the task of conquering the rest of Iran. However, a few months later, while Karim Khan was on an expedition in Kurdistan, Ali Mardan began breaking the terms which they had promised the inhabitants of Isfahan—he greatly increased his shakedown on the city, which New Julfa suffered the most from. He then further broke the terms he had made with the two chieftains, by having Abu'l-Fath deposed and killed. He then appointed his uncle as the new governor of the city, and without conference, marched towards Shiraz and began pillaging the province of Fars.[10] After having plundered Kazerun, Ali Mardan left for Isfahan, but was ambushed at the dangerous passage of Kutal-e Dokhtar by regional guerrillas under Muzari Ali Khishti, who was the chieftain of the neighbouring Khisht village. They managed to seize the plunder of Ali Mardan and kill 300 of his men, which forced the latter to withdraw to a more difficult passage to reach Isfahan. By winter, the forces of Ali Mardan had decreased even more due to abandonment from some of his men.[10]

Landscape of western Iran.

The situation worsened further for Ali Mardan, when Karim Khan returned to Isfahan in January 1751 and restored order in the city. A battle shortly occurred between them in Luristan—during the battle, Ismail III and Zakariya Khan (who was now his vizier), together with several prominent officers, deserted Ali Mardan and joined Karim Khan, who eventually emerged victorious, forcing Ali Mardan and the remains of his men, together with the governor of Luristan, Ismail Khan Feyli, to retreat to Khuzestan.[10] There Ali Mardan made an alliance with Shaykh Sa'd, the governor of Khuzestan, who reinforced him with soldiers. In the late spring of 1752, Ali Mardan, together with Ismail Khan Feyli, marched to Kermanshah. The forces of Karim Khan shortly attacked their encampment, but were repelled. Ali Mardan then went further into domains of the Zands, which resulted in a battle with Karim Khan near Nahavand. Ali Mardan, however, was once again defeated, and forced to withdraw into the mountains, where he went to the Ottoman city of Baghdad.[11]

Gold coin of Karim Khan Zand, minted in Isfahan, dated 1755/6

A year later, in early 1753, Ali Mardan together with a former Afsharid diplomat and a son of the former Safavid shah Tahmasp II (r. 1729–1732) had returned to Iran and began assembling an army in Luristan, and received the support of the Pashtun military leader Azad Khan Afghan. Some months later, they marched into the domains of Karim Khan, but Tahmasp II's son, who had been announced as Sultan Husayn II, began revealing himself as an unfit candidate as Safavid shah—this hindered their march, and resulted in the desertion of many of their men.[12]

Ali Mardan's men in Kirmanshah, after two years of besiegement by the Zand forces, surrendered and were spared by Karim Khan, who shortly clashed with Ali Mardan once again, defeating the latter and capturing Mustafa Khan. Ali Mardan managed to flee with Sultan Husayn II, but not after long had him blinded and sent to Iraq, due to being more heavy weight than of use to him.[13]

Gold coin of Karim Khan Zand, minted in Tabriz, dated 1773/4

In 1774, the Mamluk governor of the Ottoman province of Iraq, Omar Pasha began meddling in the affairs of his vassal principality of Baban, which since the death of his predecessor Sulayman Abu Layla Pasha in 1762, had fallen more and more under the influence of the Zand governor of Ardalan, Khosrow Khan Bozorg. This made Omar Pasha dismiss the Baban ruler Muhammad Pasha, and appoint Abdolla Pasha as its new ruler. This, and Omar Pasha's seizure of the remnants of Iranian pilgrims who had died during the plague that ravaged Iraq in 1773—and his exaction of payment from Iranian pilgrims to visit the holy Shia places of Najaf and Karbala, gave Karim Khan the casus belli to declare war against the Ottomans.[14][15]

There were also other reasons for Karim Khan to declare war—Mashhad, where the holy Imam Reza shrine was situated, was not under Zand control, which thus meant that free entry to the sanctuaries of Iraq was of more significance to Karim Khan than it had been to the Safavid and Afsharid shahs.[16] The Zand army was discontent, and sought to restore their reputation after Zaki Khans humiliating blunders on the Hormuz Island. Most importantly, Basra was a prominent trading port, which had surpassed the competing city of Bushehr in Fars in 1769, when the East India Company dropped the city for Basra.[16]

The Zand forces under Ali-Morad Khan Zand and Nazar Ali Khan Zand shortly clashed with the Pasha's forces in Kurdistan, where they kept them at bay, whilst Sadeq Khan, with an army of 30,000, besieged Basra in April 1775. The Arab tribe al-Muntafiq, which was allied with the governor of Basra, quickly withdrew without any effort to reject Sadeq Khan from passing through the Shatt al-Arab, whilst the Banu Ka'b and the Arabs of Bushehr supplied him with boats and supplies.[16]

Suleiman Agha, who was the commander of the fort of Basra, resisted Sadeq Khan's forces with resolve, which made the latter establish an encirclement, which would last over a year. Henry Moore, who belonged to the East India company, assaulted some of Sadeq Khan's stockpile boats, tried to block the Shatt al-Arab, and then departed to Bombay. A few months later, in October, a group of ships from Oman gave supplies and military aid to Basra, which considerably lifted the morale of its forces. However, their combined attack the next day occurred to be wavering—the Omani ships eventually chose to withdraw back to Muscat during winter, in order to avoid further losses.[16]

Karim Khan Zand with the Ottoman envoy Vehbi Efendi.

Reinforcements from Baghdad arrived shortly afterwards, which was repelled by the Khaza'il, a Shia Arab tribe which was allied with the Zand forces. In the spring of 1776, the narrow encirclement by Sadeq Khan had resulted in the defenders being on the fringe of famine—a considerable portion of the Basra forces had deserted Suleiman Agha, whilst the rumours of a possible uprising, made Suleiman Agha surrender on 16 April 1776.[17]

Even though the able Ottoman Sultan Mustafa III (r. 1757–1774) had died and was succeeded by his incompetent brother Abdul Hamid I (r. 1774–1789), and the recent Ottoman defeat to the Russians, the Ottoman response to the Ottoman–Iranian war was unusually slow. In February 1775, before the announcement of the siege of Basra had approached Istanbul, and while the Zagros front was temporarily peaceful, the Ottoman ambassador, Vehbi Efendi, was sent to Shiraz. He reached Shiraz around the same time Sadeq Khan besieged Basra, "but was not empowered to negotiate over this new crisis."[17]

In 1778, Karim Khan had made a compromise with the Russians for a cooperative offensive into eastern Anatolia. However, the invasion never took place due to Karim Khan's death on 1 March 1779,[18] after having been ill for six months, most likely due to tuberculosis.[1] He was buried three days later in the "Nazar Garden", now known as the Pars Museum.

The bureaucracy remained small during the reign of Karim Khan, due slightly to the ruler’s own desires and slightly to the earlier clutters and subsequent bureaucratic collapse that had occurred. He was backed by a vizier and a chief revenue officer (mustaufī),[26] who, however, had minimal influence and authority, due to Karim Khan's practice of rigidly handling the political affairs by himself.[27]

Flag of Iran during the reign of Karim Khan.

During Karim Khan's reign, provincial administration followed the same model of the Safavid one; beglerbegis were appointed to govern provinces. A city was under the rule of a kalantar and darugha, while its quarters was under the rule of the kadkhuda. Governorship of provinces went for the most part to tribal chieftains from Fars and its surroundings—a minister who was experienced in the administration and the income of tax regularly escorted the governor.[26] Karim Khan also created two new posts regarding the tribes: He appointed an ilkhani as the leader of all the Lur tribes and an ilbegi as the leader of all the Qashqai tribes that roamed Fars.[26]

During the dynastic wars and the conflict with the Qajars that took place after the death of Karim Khan, the Zand army disintegrated into several segments, which joined the several Zand princes who fought for the throne, but ultimately the majority of the segments changed their allegiance to the Qajar ruler Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar.

Early 18th-century illustration of the Tomb of Hafez.

Karim Khan rebuilt much of Shiraz, and had many new buildings erected, such as his famous castle, and several gardens and mosques Furthermore, he also had a new city wall, several baths, a caravanserai, and a bazaar built. Many of these, have, however, been destroyed, either during Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar's capture of the city in 1792, or during the 20th-century metropolitan restructuring.[1]

Karim Khan had the burial places of the prominent Muzaffarid ruler Shah Shoja (r. 1358–1384), and the celebrated Persian poets Hafez and Saadi renovated. Many of the pastoral Lur and Lak families were given homes in Shiraz, which eventually resulted in the city having a larger population (ca. 40,000-50,000) than Isfahan, which drew the attention of many poets, craftsmens, and even foreign traders from Europe and India, who were warmly received.[1]

Unlike the Safavids, Karim Khan did not seek the approval of the ulama (clergy), who were "formerly the bulwarks of the shah's authority as viceroy of God and the Imams".[28]